Well it's not the way I wanted my hike to end. Last evening, around 5 pm, just a couple miles north of the MA CT stateline I heard the sound & then felt the pain of a bone snapping in my right foot. Rather than push N on the trail to Jug End I headed S to Guilder Pond where there are water containers set up for the hikers. I thought I'd meet another hiker with a cellphone, or perhaps have to camp at the water spot until the trail angel returned, perhaps on Saturday.
I downed a bunch of ibuprofen and then slowly, very slowly, retraced the mile to the picnic area. Only one car in the lot and the man was just getting in, ready to leave. I shouted from the edge of the woods and he stopped to hear my story. Phil was great! We looked around in town for that trail angel thinking she might know some of the same hiker angels as me. Instead I gave a call to BascomGrillmaster and he looked up some ALDHA names for me.
Did the ER, Henry & Carla LaFleur picked me up at the hospital & I was in bed before midnight.
I have a clean break of the 5th metatarsal, it's not something I can put any weight on for 4-6 weeks. I have a splint, not a cast, so I can remove it for washing, etc. But I'm crutches for the forseeable future.
So I managed just over 500 miles in 40 days on the trail. I'm quite proud of that and was having a lot of fun with this years hikers. Perhaps I can still see some of them in NH or ME if I can heal quickly enough to travel by car. Today I'm going to look for a way to get me & my pack back to Harpers Ferry. My car is there and I think I have a place to stay for a week or so.
RockDancer (Arthur Gaudet)
Rockdancer97 at comcast.net
"The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true."